October 17th, 2004

(no subject) @ 05:52 am

Current Mood: awake

Current Music: Rammsetein/Spice Girls - Du Hast Mein Lover

I snuck into bed around 6:30 for a nap, and woke up at 1:30. Oops. My sleep schedule continues to be whacked. I was going to post about the wacky squid-alien dream, or how I'm normal from 20000 feet, but the words aren't coming out right now. Bother. Maybe tomorrow.

In the meantime, here's one of my favorite sonnets:

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things, The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed. And on the pedestal these words appear: "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains: round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away.

That's the point of what I've yet to write: in some ways, I'd prefer there be more due warning that I don't behave quite normally. I think that the Uncanny Valley reflex kicks in a lot when it becomes apparent that I'm "mostly" normal, but very different in some subtler ways - and thus, I'm ultra-creepy sometimes.

Some people also discover that the creep factor is not a big deal. A lot of it is just fear of the unknown. But no matter what you do, you're going to creep some people out.

There's something to be said for not steamrolling over people with what you think are your idiosyncracies. When people do that (and I think exhibitionists in particular frequently do this online), that appears to be all they are about, and that makes them appear a more shallow, and thus less interesting, person. Maybe that's just me, though.

The thrust is that those idiosyncracies tend to pop up at very unexpected times for people, usually when they're off-guard with me. It's not that I want them to be on-guard; I'd rather that they know and expect I may act differently - and thus when I hit something that may hit the oogie button, they don't flinch and withdraw (and in consequence, make me freak out) but instead see it for what it is.